Friday, April 1st: Himeji
We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and head for Himeji today. Himeji-jo was spectacular, much larger than I expected. Kokoen (gardens right next to the castle) were beautiful too. We lucked into a street faire of sorts with food, saki, and local crafts people sampling their wares and selling small things too. Erci and Dan had fun surfing the market for lunch and brought it back to Jeff and I (we were resting and watching Jonathan). We bought two bottles of exellent Himeji saki, Yaegaki "MU" (Yaegaki Mu Website), and enjoyed one of them later in the hotel room. Yummi-desu.
Our luck ran out in that there was a traveling exhibition of Ukiyo-e coming to the Himeji city art museum starting April 2nd, and included is one of the original prints of the famous Ukiyo-e wave painting (sorry Howard!) - but the Museum would not let us in the day before the exhibit was scheduled to open... Cherry blossoms in Himeji also appear ready to pop out on Sunday, and we will not be able to come back for that.
Jeff and Dan got their first taste of both Nozomi and Hikari Rail Star travel (we got on the wrong train going towards Hakata at first, rode it to Shin-Kobe then switched to a second bullet train to complete the run to Himeji). Coming back we rode the local express (should have made sure to get the limited express) and spent 90 minutes making the return of the 38 minute journey out. We did get to see lots of different towns along the old Sanyo line.
Our luck ran out in that there was a traveling exhibition of Ukiyo-e coming to the Himeji city art museum starting April 2nd, and included is one of the original prints of the famous Ukiyo-e wave painting (sorry Howard!) - but the Museum would not let us in the day before the exhibit was scheduled to open... Cherry blossoms in Himeji also appear ready to pop out on Sunday, and we will not be able to come back for that.
Jeff and Dan got their first taste of both Nozomi and Hikari Rail Star travel (we got on the wrong train going towards Hakata at first, rode it to Shin-Kobe then switched to a second bullet train to complete the run to Himeji). Coming back we rode the local express (should have made sure to get the limited express) and spent 90 minutes making the return of the 38 minute journey out. We did get to see lots of different towns along the old Sanyo line.
